Remains belonging to a village from the Neolithic period have been discovered in Istanbul’s Pendik district during excavations under the authority of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, daily Radikal has reported.

The 8,500-year-old foundations of houses, graves, and waste pools were unearthed as construction continues to enlarge the current railway as a part of the Marmaray project between Gebze and Pendik.

The village is reportedly located 50 meters away from the coast and around 1,500 meters from the district center.

Sea shells found in the uncovered waste pool reportedly show that people living in the area in Neolithic period had been eating seafood. Personal material, including hand axes, needles and spoons made of bones, and pots from the Byzantine period, were also found in the graves, the report said.

Officials from the Archaeology Museum said they were working to clarify whether there was a relationship between the people of that era living in Pendik and Yenikapı, where excavations in another Neolithic period area, which was found when construction of the Marmaray began, have been ongoing for eight years.